Free Buried in Bargains (Good Buy Girls) by Josie Belle Page A

sputtered in Maggie’s defense, but a deep voice cut her off.
    “Maggie, there you are,” the voice said from behind her. “I believe this dance is mine.”
    Maggie turned her head to see Sam standing behind her. She had no doubt that he had stepped in to keep the peace. She would have protested that she had no intention of scuffling with Summer at the ball, but she figured she’d just take the out Sam was offering and for once keep her mouth shut.
    “Go on,” Joanne said. “I’ll hold your wrap.”
    Before Maggie could protest, Joanne snapped it off her, and Maggie felt the cool evening air hit her back with a slap.
    A breath hissed from behind her, and Maggie looked over her shoulder to see Sam taking in her bare back. She felt an embarrassed heat rise to her cheeks, but then his gaze met hers and it smoldered.
    Without saying a word, he held out his hand to her. Maggie took it and Sam twirled her onto the dance floor as if they had been dancing together forever. It occurred to Maggie that in some ways they had been dancing close and then darting away from each other all their lives.
    The band was playing “It Had to Be You” by Isham Jones and Gus Kahn. They were playing it slow, and as Sam waltzed her around the floor it was hard to catch her breath with his body so close to hers and her insides fluttering as if a thousand feathers were tickling her.
    “Nice dress,” Sam said. His hand slid down her back from her shoulder blades to the base of her spine.
    “Thank you,” Maggie said. She felt unaccountably shy and hyperaware of his callused hand on her exposed skin.
    Sam surprised her by twirling her, and Maggie laughed as he reeled her back in again. He grinned at her, pulling her close.
    “I didn’t know you were such a good dancer,” she said, trying to keep the conversation light and normal.
    “I’m feeling inspired,” he said.
    Maggie tilted her head, not understanding.
    “I want to show off my incredibly sexy partner,” he said.
    Maggie felt her face get hot. “Won’t your date be annoyed?”
    “No,” he said. “The lovely lady I wanted to take already had plans, so I came alone.”
    “Summer dumped you for Tyler, huh?” Maggie said. “Bummer.”
    Sam tipped back his head and laughed. He was stunningly handsome when he laughed, and Maggie felt her breath catch as her heart hiccupped in her chest.
    Sam slowed them down and pulled her even closer and, as the bandleader crooned the last line of the song, Sam whispered the line in her ear, “It had to be you.”
    He pulled back to gaze at her and, for once in her life, Maggie found she was speechless. As the band ended the song, Sam led her to one side of the room and right out the French doors onto the patio.
    The cold air felt good against her heated skin. She stepped out of Sam’s arms, but he held on to her hand and led her to a dark and unpopulated corner of the balcony.
    Maggie shivered, but it wasn’t from the cold. She felt as if this moment between her and Sam had been coming forever.
    “Here,” he said as he shrugged out of his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders.
    “Thanks, but I’m not cold,” she said.
    “You’re shivering.” He shook his head, obviously not getting it.
    Maggie blew out a breath. How thick could the man be?
    “Sam, I—” she began, while he said, “Maggie, I—”
    “Oh, sorry, you go ahead,” she said.
    “No, ladies first,” he said.
    “All right,” she said.
    Maggie stared at the man in front of her. At various times in her life she’d wanted to back over him with her car, split a pizza together and go skinny-dipping with him. It was not hard to discern which of those three she felt like doing now, since his blue eyes gleamed at her and his very trim and muscular body was defined by the moonlight in high-def under his white dress shirt.
    “Sam, I—” she began again.
    “Oh, hell,” he said. “I can’t take this.”
    Maggie didn’t have a chance to catch her breath as